Performing Identities and Negotiating Memory in Contested Spaces: Ukrainian Folk Songs in Contemporary Russian War Films

Every year leading up to Victory Day on 9 May, Russian screens, large and small, show feature films, documentaries, and miniseries about the Second World War. These films have helped unify Russian citizenry and develop patriotism. The year 2015 proved to be notable for war cinematography: three feature films and one twelve-part miniseries premiered in honour of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. While all of these cinematic releases retell or engage with wellknown narratives, these remakes reflect tensions surrounding the conflict that erupted in Ukraine following years of increasing strained relations with Russia. ‘Performing Identities and Negotiating Memory in Contested Spaces: Ukrainian Folk Songs in Contemporary Russian War Films’ analyses the incorporation a Ukrainian folksongs into Sergei Mokritskii’s feature film Battle for Sevastopol and Leonid Pliaskin’s twelve-part miniseries, The Young Guard. In every cinematized version of The Young Guard, music has played a significant role. The author asks how directors use these songs to respond to the annexation of Crimea and conflict that erupted in the Donbas in 2014 as the films take place in these two regions. Contextualizing her analysis in scholarship related to collective memory, nationality, nostalgia, and intertextuality, she argues that the directors use the films to take two different approaches: symbolically reuniting the Soviet Union in film one and appropriating a Ukrainian song to underscore suffering caused by Ukrainian and German ‘fascists’ in the other.